Matthew’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2016)

Matthew’s comments from the KING OF SHARDS Q&A / Discussion Group group.

Thanks Bob!

I wrote King of Shards and "One Spring in Cherrville" at different times, and in different moods (Shards for example took several years to get the first draft into shape.) So that might partly account for the different tone. I was shooting for about 125,000 words in the first book, so I often had to be more concise in my descriptions. And I thought that sometimes a more direct style is better, since it connects readers more easily to the action.

Some of this is conscious and other times not so much. I try to put my head into the story as much as possible, and the prose and style arises mostly from that.

I'm glad you like, "The History Within Us" too. That's one of my favorites. I'm working on another far-future SF story now, so hopefully I may have that in print soon.

I appreciate the feedback! It's always nice to hear what others think of my work.

-Matt

Hi Bob.

I read your story and enjoyed it. I like the premise of a warrior-king from Nineveh surviving down the centuries to the present day. Interesting use of the Sephirot too.

I particularly liked this line, "The blade had drawn me to him in Brooklyn when he was a scrawny but brilliant Yeshiva student with an unorthodox eye for one of the Rebbe’s daughters."

Thanks for sharing.

-Matt

Thanks, Bob! I'm familiar with that book but haven't gotten to it yet. (There are so many!) Thanks for the reminder.

Yes, I took the myth and several other similar Lurianic myths and synthesized them into a new mythology. I'm glad you picked up on that, and yes that's what I was going for. In Queen of Static I explore the Shards/demonic realms a bit more, and we get to see more of the demon point of view. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and I'm excited to see how readers like yourself will respond, because (and I know I'm biased) I feel I've upped my game so to speak with the second book.

I'll take a look at that Galaxy's Edge issue. Sounds cool! Thanks for sharing, and let me know if you have any other questions.

-Matt

Hi Bob,

Thanks for asking! I did a ton of research for King of Shards and Queen of Static, not all of which made it into the book. But a lot of it definitely colored the mythological and epic scope of the books. Here's a partial list of my sources:

Ansky, S. The Dybbuk and Other Writings. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Folklore. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc, 1975.

Bart, André Schwartz. The Last of the Just. New York: Athenium, 1960.

Bellow, Saul, ed. Great Jewish Short Stories. New York: Dell Publishing, 1963.

Matt, Daniel C. The Zohar: Pritzker Edition. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press,
2004.

Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. San Fransisco,
California: HarperSanFransisco, 1995.

Neugroschel, Joachim, ed. The Great Works of Jewish Fantasy and Occult. Woodstock, New
York: Overlook Press, 1986.

Pavlát, Leo, ed. Jewish Folk Tales. New York: Greenwhich House, 1986.

Peters, Madison C. Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud. New York: Baker & Tayler Co., 1900.

Scholem, Gershom G. Zohar: The Book of Splendor. New York: Shocken Books. 1974.

Schwartz, Howard. Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis. The Collected Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1982.

Weinstein, Miriam, ed. Prophets & Dreamings: A Selection of Great Yiddish Literature. South
Royalton, Vermont: Steerforth Press, 2002.

Wurmbrand, Max and Roth, Cecil. The Jewish People: 4000 Years of Survival. New York:
Adama Books, 1986.

Hope this helps you!

-Matt

I figure I'll start the discussion with a brief intro about myself. After working in IT for five years at several high-stress start-ups, I left the corporate world in 2002 and began freelancing so I could devote more time to writing. I took several classes at the New School, in Manhattan, notably with the late Alice K. Turner, former Playboy editor and co-founder of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB series. Since then I've published over two dozen stories, have been nominated twice for a Nebula Award and once for a World Fantasy Award, have had my fiction translated into Czech, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Romanian, and have published a novel, KING OF SHARDS. The sequel, QUEEN OF STATIC, will be out this fall.

Currently I do IT work and write when I can. I'm the co-host of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB series with Ellen Datlow and I've been a member of the Altered Fluid writers group since 2003. I'm here and I don't bite. Ask me anything!